Stephen Lewis: Time to Deliver: Winning the Battle Agains Disease & Poverty in the Developing World
Monday, March 24 at 7 pm l Kenan Auditorium
If Canadian politician and diplomat Stephen Lewis came to me applying for a job, he’d have a very hard time getting his resume to fit into that one measly page. To shorten it, he might just want to sum his career up in the following sentence: I’m a humanitarian who has worked to improve the human condition, both at home and abroad.
But if pressed to expand, here are a few of the highlights he might want to use: leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party for 8 years, during which time he became leader of the official opposition. He also served as Canadian ambassador to the United Nations, and as the Deputy Executive Director of UNICEF in New York.
OK fine, while we’re at, he might want to note how he serves as co-chair of the Leadership Program committee for the 17th international AIDS conference and is also member of the board of directors of the international AIDS vaccine initiative. And well, he certainly couldn’t go without mentioning that he is also the chair of the board of the Stephen Lewis foundation, which is dedicated to easing the pain of HIV/AIDS in Africa.
Oh, and this one is really cool: in April of 2005, Lewis was named by Time magazine as one of the 1000 most influential people in the world along with the likes of the Dalai Lama, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfrey and Nelson Mandela.
“Uhm, Mr. Lewis, you’re hired.”
His talk will be followed by an audience Q & A session and book signing. Click HERE for program details and general ticket information.
Check out what's in store for April:
Angélique Kidjo: Wed, Apr 9 at 8 pm l Kenan Auditorium 
Next up is the Grammy Award Winning Angelique Kidjo. With this most recent win and her four nominations total, Kidjo has proven her world-musical dominance. But how did she get there? Why, by cross-pollinating her West African traditions of her childhood in Benin with elements of American R&B, funk and jazz, as well as influences from Europe and Latin America, of course.
You would think that that would be enough, but no. There’s more to her. Beyond her music, Kidjo has traveled far and mesmerized audiences on countless stages, speaking out on behalf of the children in her capacity as a UNICEF goodwill ambassador.
And what’s so brilliant is that all of this ends up in her music. Everything blends and ends up offering a unique perspective on the grand and expansive category of world music: that this all-encompassing world is also much smaller than we think, and that no matter how far flung its peoples may be, subtle lines of interconnection span the globe, uniting its people.
Lila Downs: Fri, Apr 18 at 8 pm l Kenan Auditorium
And why not follow up a Grammy Award winner with another? Yes, Lila Downs is also a Grammy Award Winner – this Mexican-American chanteuse won the Latin Grammy for Best Folk Album in 2005, for her album Una Sangre/One Blood, in which she incorporates indigenous languages and popular singing traditions of Mexico into her original compositions.
It is this cultural mélange of Mexico’s long and cherished folk-music legacy with hip, contemporary instrumentation that makes Downs so special, and of which, Lorenza Muñoz of The Los Angeles Times writes, "Exotic beauty and startling voice…[Downs] is a reflection of a 21st century world culture where ethnicity and national boundaries blur."
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